New tool from Harbor Freight


 
I am OK with talking about the challenge of buying American when you want to but can't always afford it. That describes me, too.

Going back to the original post, can anyone tell more about what this tool can do? Would it really be a substitute for an angle grinder/cup brush? If so, looks like on flat areas, at least, that it would give smoother results. The wire brush marks that reflect differently from various angles are a give-away that a wire brush has been used.
 
I just saw this and had to chuckle. 60k might buy just the snap on box with no tools. I definitely understand why people buy cheaper tools for home. I've been known to do the same myself. But at work, I open up the wallet and pay the man. Looks this this could be an interesting solution for grill clean up at home. Probably could have used it on my beast of a jambo a couple weeks ago!
 
I have actually found and bought US made product(s) in HF. Now understand only a couple things here or there that are obscure but US made i.e. air hoses and I forgot what else. But let's not just blame HF here. You have all the main stores as well doing same. Home Depot, Lowes, etc. The "real" issue though is not just the merchants. But, the manufacturers i.e. Bosch, DeWalt, Skill, etc. All formerly non Asian companies but instead thanks to greed on their parts see an opportunity to triple or more profit margins by using Asian (read Chinese) companies to make the products. Hell even our own Weber has done the same.
Of course than there was the largest retailer of all. Walmart. I remember when old Sam was alive. The sales flyers touted how he personally fought for made in USA goods. Even to the point of buying his own factories to continue producing goods he sold. He died and that went out the window
 
JimZ said:
Flat surface polishing tool. I think Porter cable did have one and we had one by a company called flex. They do work but are more for flat surfaces. We used them to polish corners after welding prefinished stainless and aluminum. Dont know anything about the Bauer name though.
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Yea that's what we used them for. SS. They polish with the grain so that's preferred over orbital.
They do use a belt drive so that's something that can fail depending on quality.
 
LMichaels said:
I have actually found and bought US made product(s) in HF. Now understand only a couple things here or there that are obscure but US made i.e. air hoses and I forgot what else. But let's not just blame HF here. You have all the main stores as well doing same. Home Depot, Lowes, etc. The "real" issue though is not just the merchants. But, the manufacturers i.e. Bosch, DeWalt, Skill, etc. All formerly non Asian companies but instead thanks to greed on their parts see an opportunity to triple or more profit margins by using Asian (read Chinese) companies to make the products. Hell even our own Weber has done the same.
Of course than there was the largest retailer of all. Walmart. I remember when old Sam was alive. The sales flyers touted how he personally fought for made in USA goods. Even to the point of buying his own factories to continue producing goods he sold. He died and that went out the window
Click to expand...

Walmart - oh yeah. Remember the late '80's to mid-'90s?
They had a multi-billion-dollar "buy American," campaign.
Commercials, signs in every aisle, you name it. Now, you
don't see a single word.

Not looking to take this thread political - just making personal
observations. We all want to be patriotic, but it seems we all
want cheap prices that American-made goods rarely seem to
fall in. It's a tricky situation that I have no solution for.
 
I think it maybe slowly changing. Look at Toyota, Honda and others. We also found out just how fragile just-in-time production and shipping is. I think there may be more warehousing and on-shoring in the future.
 
If you're going to do JIT, historically, you'd build stocks into your lowest cost points of production (or transformation) to cover over spikes & dips in demand. Yes, that does imply that everything through the entire supply chain works otherwise, and that's all broken down over the last couple of years.

I used to work for a manufacturer (name and industry doesn't need to be disclosed) who did maybe 5% of gross revenue with automotive tier 1 suppliers. The automotive suppliers just could not wrap their heads around the fact that my employer wouldn't put their tooling into tomorrow's production when we had a job running for a customer who alone had 3x the entire automotive revenue. They were completely used to people jumping when they said go, and my employer flat-out would not do it. The inevitable threats were made about production loss fines, etc., and the purchase orders & contracts would get trotted out. This is where the stocking issue comes in. The suppliers were adamant about not allowing us to stock more than about a week's worth of finished product in the warehouse, 2 to 3 should have been stocked to cover their last minute demand changes (which, BTW, the contracts specifically barred, once their demand got within 4 weeks, it was supposed to be chiseled in stone. Apparently, they never got the memo.)
 
JKalchik said:
The suppliers were adamant about not allowing us to stock more than about a week's worth of finished product in the warehouse, 2 to 3 should have been stocked to cover their last minute demand changes (which, BTW, the contracts specifically barred,
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I don't understand why they would be against stocking for more than a week. What is the downside for them?
 
Joe Anshien said:
I don't understand why they would be against stocking for more than a week. What is the downside for them?
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Companies do not want to tie up cash in inventories that just sit there 90%of the time. It is all about turnover. Does not matter if it is manufacturing or retail-or anything in between.
 
timothy said:
Yea that's what we used them for. SS. They polish with the grain so that's preferred over orbital.
They do use a belt drive so that's something that can fail depending on quality.
Click to expand...
So maybe their best application on grills would be for stainless steel tables and doors?
 
Internationally, as a scientific sales guy, I have found that once somebody issues a purchase order, they expect the vendor (in my case, the company I am working for) to literally drop everything and rapidly complete their project. There is a corporate state of megalomania that has existed for all time. Once somebody issues a purchase order, in their mind, they become priority number one. Ask us (the sales people) how many times we asked for the PO, how we thoroughly explained the turnaround time, how we kept telling them we can't "clear manufacturing time" for them until we have a PO. Everybody is the most important person in the world to themselves.
 
@THyde and @JSaus get it.

In other words: "Let me get this straight. You want me to pull tooling from a $1,000,000+ job to put in your tooling for a $50,000 job? That's not happening, unless you want to pay the premium to cover the profit loss on the current job."
 
Dave in KC said:
I love Harbor Freight, and I REALLY LOVE CHEAP
DEALS. I don't need Snap-On quality, and I don't need a $200
socket wrench - or whatever they are charging now. If my $10
socket wrench breaks, I will buy a new one.
Click to expand...
Pittsburgh socket wrenches come with a lifetime warranty. Just take a broken one in and they will give you a brand new one. Verified by personal experience.
 
Joe Anshien said:
Look at Toyota, Honda
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Not sure where this was headed. If you do look particularly at Toyota and Honda, they make more cars here than even GM, Ford and Stelantis (formerly Chrysler) does. Back when I retired from the airline and took a part time gig to fill in at a large car rental company. I used to get people who would come in, slap their fist on the counter and demand "gimme an 'Merican car none of that foreign crap". So I would pull out a couple sets of keys. "would you like this beautiful Toyota Camry made in South Bend Indiana keeping American workers employed or this POC Buick made in China?" You choose. 100% of the time presented with these choices they drove off in the Camry and came back singing the praises of how much they loved it. Used to make me laugh every time
 
Jon Tofte said:
So maybe their best application on grills would be for stainless steel tables and doors?
Click to expand...
Yea and you could probably do hoods.
Besides SS we used it to polish up some bronze doors on a High rise. It worked awesome going around the curve on the revolver door.
 
LMichaels said:
Not sure where this was headed. If you do look particularly at Toyota and Honda, they make more cars here than even GM, Ford and Stelantis (formerly Chrysler) does. Back when I retired from the airline and took a part time gig to fill in at a large car rental company. I used to get people who would come in, slap their fist on the counter and demand "gimme an 'Merican car none of that foreign crap". So I would pull out a couple sets of keys. "would you like this beautiful Toyota Camry made in South Bend Indiana keeping American workers employed or this POC Buick made in China?" You choose. 100% of the time presented with these choices they drove off in the Camry and came back singing the praises of how much they loved it. Used to make me laugh every time
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When my g/f bought her Civic in 2000, she was getting a lot of grief from her family about that cheap Japanese piece of crap. They weren't happy and got quiet when I pointed out it was built in Marysville, OH and had more domestic content than their F150s parked out front.

I bought the Civic from her a few years ago when she got the bug for a new car, and I'm gonna drive it until the wheels fall off.
 
JKalchik said:
When my g/f bought her Civic in 2000, she was getting a lot of grief from her family about that cheap Japanese piece of crap. They weren't happy and got quiet when I pointed out it was built in Marysville, OH and had more domestic content than their F150s parked out front.

I bought the Civic from her a few years ago when she got the bug for a new car, and I'm gonna drive it until the wheels fall off.
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And the wheels will never fall off, if you live in the midwest itll rust out before it dies lol
 
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